Detection of pitch variations in lenticular material

ABSTRACT

A method of sensing the pitch or relative location of a lenticular lens on a sheet of transparent lenticular material of the type having a repeating pattern of cylindrical lenses on one side and a flat opposite side, comprising the steps of: forming a beam of light; focusing the beam of light into a spot smaller than the pitch of the cylindrical lenses onto the lenticular material; moving the lenticular material relative to the beam in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the cylindrical lenses to modulate the angle of reflection or refraction of the beam of light; and sensing the position of the modulated beam of light to determine the pitch or relative location of lenticular material to the focused spot.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/033,212, filed Mar. 2, 1998 now abandoned, whichis a Continuation-in-Part application of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 08/828,637 filed Mar. 31, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,194, issuedNov. 10, 1998.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to the field of manufacturinglenticular images and more particularly to detecting and measuring thepitch of lenticular material which is used for producing the lenticularimages. More specifically, the invention relates to the detection of achange in pitch of the lenticular lenses as the material is transportedin a scanning laser printer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Lenticular images include an array of cylindrical lenses in a lenticularmaterial and a sequence of spatially multiplexed images that are viewedthroughout the lenticular material so that different ones of themultiplexed images are viewed at different angles by the viewer. Oneimage effect produced by the lenticular image is a depth or 3D imagewhere one eye views one image of a stereo pair or sequence from oneangle and the other eye views another image from the stereo pair.Another image effect is a motion image where different images in amotion image sequence are viewed by changing the angle at which theimage is viewed. Other effects that combine these two effects, or formcollages of unrelated images that can be viewed from different viewingangles can be provided.

It has been proposed to create lenticular images by providing alenticular material having a color photographic emulsion thereon. Thespatially multiplexed images are exposed onto the lenticular media by alaser scanner and the material is processed to produce the lenticularimage product. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,006, issued Dec. 9,1997 to Taguchi et al.

The image that is exposed on the lenticular media must be very preciselypositioned under each lenticule. Unfortunately, the manufacturing andkeeping tolerances of lenticular media result in significant changes inthe pitch of the lenticular lenses in the media. If the pitch of thelenticular lenses on the material varies or is different from what isexpected, the image quality will be comprised. There is a need thereforefor an improved manufacturing process for making lenticular imageproducts form lenticular media of the type having a lenticular lensarray coated with photographic emulsion.

It is known to scan a non actinic laser beam across a lenticular arrayin a direction perpendicular to the axes of the lenticular lenses, andto sense the deflection of the beam by the lenticular lenses to producean output clock for modulating a writing beam. See U.S. Pat. No.5,681,676, issued Oct. 28, 1997 to Telfer et al.

It is one object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus fordetecting and/or measuring any variation of lenticular pitch for thepurpose of printing accurate images on the media. It is another objectof the invention to provide a method and apparatus for compensating forsuch variations during manufacture of a lenticular image product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of theproblems set forth above. Briefly summarized, according to one aspect ofthe present invention, a lenticular image product is formed from alenticular material having an array of cylindrical lenses and aphotographic emulsion coated thereon, by scanning the lenticularmaterial with an intensity modulated first beam of light in a directionparallel to the long axes of the cylindrical lenses to form a latentlenticular image in the photographic emulsion. A second beam of lighthaving a wavelength outside of the range of sensitivity of thephotographic emulsion is focused into a spot smaller than the pitch ofthe cylindrical lenses onto the lenticular material. The lenticularmaterial is moved through the beam in a direction perpendicular to theaxes of the cylindrical lenses to provide a page scan motion of thelenticular material and to modulate the angle of reflection orrefraction of the second beam of light. The position of the angularlymodulated second beam of light is sensed and the sensed position is usedto control the motion of the lenticular material.

These and other aspects, objects, features, and advantages of thepresent invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from areview of the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments and appended claims, and by reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides an accurate method for either mapping lenticularpitch or detecting pitch variations which can be compensated in a laserprinter, thereby enabling efficient production of lenticular imageproducts using lenticular media having photographic emulsion coatedthereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus employed to producelenticular image products according to the present invention;

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C are schematic diagram illustrating the effect ofthe lenticular medium on the second beam of light;

FIG. 3A is a schematic block diagram illustrating the control of mediatransport according to the present invention.

FIG. 3B is a diagrammatic view useful in exploring the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a plot showing the output of the sensor shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus for generating acorrection signal for controlling the motion of the lenticular mediumaccording to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus for generating acorrection signal for controlling the motion of the lenticular mediumaccording to an alternate embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus for generating acorrection signal for controlling the motion of the lenticular mediumaccording to a further alternative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus for generating acorrection signal for controlling the motion of the lenticular mediumaccording to a still further embodiment of the invention.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been usedwhere possible, to designate identical elements that are common to thefigures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, lenticular image product production apparatus 10includes a platen 12 for supporting lenticular media 14. Lenticularmedia 14 is transported past platen 12 in the direction of arrow A by apitch roller drive system 16 that is driven by motor 18. An encoder 20is provided on the shaft of motor 18 to provide a measurement of thedistance that the lenticular media 14 is transported. The lenticularmedia 14 is exposed with a laser beam 22 from a modulated laser 24. Thelaser beam 22 is focused onto a scanning polygon 26 by a pair of beamshaping mirrors 28 and 30. The laser beam 22 is reflected from a coldmirror (reflects visible light and transmits infrared light) 32 onto acylindrical mirror 34, which refocuses the laser beam 22 onto the media14. The scanning polygon 26 causes the laser beam 22 to scan thelenticular media in the direction of arrow B, parallel to the longcylindrical axes of the lenticular lenses in the media. The motion ofthe media past platen 12 provides scanning in the orthogonal direction.

An infrared laser 36, located at distance from the surface of the mediaidentical to the distance to the scanning face of the polygon 26, formsa second beam of light 38, of a wavelength that does not expose thelenticular media 14. The second beam of light is reflected by a mirror40 through cold mirror 32 onto cylindrical mirror 34. Cylindrical mirror34 focuses the second beam 38 onto the surface of the lenticularmaterial 14. In response to motion of lenticular media 14, a sensor 44detects the angular displacement caused by the lenticular lenses in thelenticular material 14 of the second beam 38 to provide a pitchindication signal to control electronics 46.

Control electronics 46 employs the pitch correction signal and thesignal from encoder 20 as described below to control the motor 18 sothat the media 14 travels past platen 12 at a constant pitch rate.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C illustrate how the lenticular material deflects thebeam 38 of infrared light as it passes through different portions of oneof the lenticular lenses in the lenticular material. As the beam 38first encounters a lenticule, as shown in FIGS. 2A, it is refracted at alarge angle to the left and impinges on the left side of the positionsensing detector 44. The angle depends upon the position of thelenticule with respect to the beam 38. When the beam is at the center ofa lenticule FIG. 2B, it is minimally deflected as shown in theillustration in the center and falls on the center of the positionsensor 44. As the lenticular material is moved further to the right, asshown in FIG. 2C, the beam is deflected to the right and impinges on theright side of the position sensor 44. The position sensor 44 may be, forexample, a PSD S3932 position sensitive detector available fromHamamatsu Photonics KK, Hamamatsu, Japan.

Referring now to FIG. 3A, the control electronics is shown in furtherdetail. A beam of light 38 is focused onto a flat surface 13 of thelenticular material 14. The lenticular material 14 is moved relative tothe beam 38 by a transport mechanism 16 which contains an encoder 20.When the beam 38 passes through the curved surface 15 of the lenticularmaterial 44 it refracts at a large angle. The centroid of the exitingbeam 33 is axially displaced from the original beam 38 by a distance d(see FIG. 3B). This distance d is measured by a position sensingdetector 44. As the transport mechanism 16 moves the lenticular material14, the distance d changes. This creates an output signal 48 which isthen supplied to a zero crossing comparator 50. As soon as a zerocrossing is detected by the comparator, a zero crossing signal 52 issent to the pitch detection electronics 54, triggering the counting ofencoder pulses 56. The output of pitch detection electronics 54 is asignal proportional to encoder pulse counts per lenticule which definesthe lenticular pitch error 58. The pitch error 58 is supplied to thedigital servo control 46 as a velocity correction signal to the nominalvelocity command 64. The output of digital servo controller 46, controlsignal 62, is sent to power amplifier 60 to drive media transport motor18. FIG. 4 shows waveform 48 produced by position detector 44.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a preferred arrangement for pitch detectionelectronics 54 will be described. The effective error in the lenticularpitch is computed by counting the cycles of the output signal 48 fromthe position sensing detector 44 (see FIG. 3A) which occur over apredetermined distance as measured by counting a pre-determined numberof encoder pulses 56. The measurement occurs after the media transport16 has reached its nominal transport speed. At this point, a counter 66,DIV has been preset to a predetermined value and is enabled to countdown one count per encoder pulse. During the period defined by thepre-determined value, a GATE pulse signal 68 is produced which enablesthe gated counter 70. The output signal 48 is applied to a zero crossingcomparator 50 which produces a square wave CLK IN 52. The gated counter70 counts one count per each rising edge of the signal 52 at CLK IN thusaccumulating the number of full cycles of the output signal 48. Thegated counter 70 could likewise be configured to count on the fallingedge of the CLK IN signal 52. The ideal choice of edge is that whichcorresponds to the zero crossing associated with the beam 38 at thecenter of the lenticular lens 14 illustrated in of FIG. 2B. At the nextGATE pulse 68, the output of the gated counter 70 is latched and outputto a difference circuit 72 which computes the pitch difference. Thepitch difference 74 is the difference between the measured lenticulecount and the nominal lenticule count 78. This pitch difference is thenapplied to the Gain or LUT block 76, which adjusts this pitch differencesignal to a scaled value which is then sent as a pitch error signal 58to the digital servo controller 46 to correct the transport speed of themedia 14. The desired result of this correction to the transport speedis to move the lenticular media at a constant lenticular pitch rate,thereby compensating for lenticular media pitch imperfections.Subsequently, the gated customer 70 is zeroed when the next gate pulse68 from the divider circuit 66 and begins counting on the nextappropriate edge of the zero crossing comparator output 52.

Turning now to FIG. 6, an alternate arrangement for pitch detectionelectronics 54 will be described. The effective error in the lenticularpitch is computed by dividing the number of predetermined cycles of theoutput 48 of position detector 44 by the distance within the media asmeasured by counting the number of encoder pulses 56 generated. Themeasurement occurs after the media transport 16 has reached its nominaltransport speed. The output signal 48 is fed to a zero crossingcomparator 50 to produce a square wave 52. The square wave 52 us fed tothe counter 66 DIV, which has been preset to a predetermined value andis enabled to count down one count per rising edge of the square wave52. As explained above, the counter could likewise be configured tocount on the falling edge of the square wave 52. Gate pulse signal 68initiates counting by the gated counter 70. In this embodiment, theencoder pulses 56 are directed to the input referred to as CLKN IN. Thegated counter 70 counts one count per each rising edge of the signal atCLKN IN thus accumulating the number of encoder pulses 56 within thepre-determined number of cycles of output 48. At the occurrence of thenext GATE pulse, the output of the gated counter 70 is latched to thedifference circuit 72 which computes the pitch difference 74. The pitchdifference 74 is the difference between the measured encoder count andthe nominal pitch in encoder pulses 80. This pitch difference is thenapplied to the Gain or LUT block 76, which adjusts this pitch differencesignal to a scaled value which is then sent as a pitch error signal 58to the digital servo controller 46 to correct the transport speed of themedia 14. The desired result of this correction to the transport speedis to move the lenticular media at a constant lenticular pitch rate,thereby compensating for lenticular media pitch imperfections.Subsequently, the gated counter 70 is zeroed and beings counting afterthe next appropriate edge of the zero crossing comparator output 52.

Turning now to FIG. 7, alternate arrangement for pitch detectionelectronics 54 will be described. The signal 48 from the position sensor44 produced by the second beam of light 38, as its angle is modulated bythe lens of the lenticular media 14, is applied to a Zero CrossingComparator 50 which produces a square wave logic signal 52. The risingand falling edges of this square wave signal correspond to thetransitions through zero of the position sensor waveform 48. The idealchoice of edge is that which corresponds to the zero crossing associatedwith the beam 38 at the center of the lenticular lens 14 illustrated inthe center view (B) of FIG. 2. This square wave logic signal 52 is thenapplied to a divider circuit 66 which counts a predetermined number oflenticule appropriate zero crossings of waveform 48. At the occurrenceof this pre-determined number of zero crossings the divider circuit 66outputs a gating pulse signal 68 to the gated counter circuit 70.

The function of the gated counter circuit 70 is to count the clockpulses 82 applied to its clock input from the reference clock source 84,during the time that occurs between the gate input pulses 68 from thedivider circuit 66. At the end of a counting cycle, which is terminatedby a new gate pulse 68 from the divider circuit 66, the current count islatched and output to the next block which is the difference circuit 72.At the same time the count is latched, the gate counter 70 is zeroed andbegins again counting the reference clock pulses 82 applied to its clockinput. The latched count output is applied to the difference circuit 72which subtracts the count from the expected nominal pitch period inclock counts 86. The output 74 of the difference circuit 72 is the pitchdifference of the latest measured count or pitch period with respect tothe expected nominal pitch period 86. This pitch difference 74 is thenapplied to the gain or LUT block 76 which adjusts this pitch differencesignal 74 to a scaled value 58. The scaled value 58 is the pitch error,which is then sent to the digital servo controller 46 to correct thetransport speed of the media 14. The desired result of this correctionto the transport speed is to move the lenticular media 14 at a constantlenticular pitch rate thereby compensating for lenticular media pitchimperfections.

Turning now to FIG. 8, a still further alternate arrangement for pitchdetection electronics 54 will be described. The signal 48 from theposition detector 44 produced by the second beam of light 38, as itsangle is modulated by a lenticule of the lenticular media 14, is appliedto a zero crossing comparator 50 which produces a square wave logicsignal 52. The rising and falling edges of this square wave signal 52correspond to the transitions through the zero of the position detectorsignal 48. This square wave signal 52 is applied to a minus input of aphase comparator circuit 88. The purpose of the phase comparator circuit88 is to determine the phase error occurring between the output of thezero crossing comparator 50 and a reference phase clock 90.

The reference phase clock 90 is generated from a clock reference 84 andis the desired frequency of the signal 48 produced by the lenticularmedia 14 as its moved by the transport 16. The reference phase clock 90is applied to the plus input of the phase comparator 88. The phasecomparator 88 which is commonly known and understood in the art,produces an output signal 92 representing the phase difference of thetwo input signals over a range of plus or minus 180 degrees of phaseshift between the two input waveforms. This output phase error signal 92is applied to the gain or LTJT block 76 which adjusts the signal to ascaled value. The scaled value 58 represents the pitch error, which isthen sent to the digital servo controller 46 to correct the transportspeed of the media 14. The desired result of this correction to thetransport speed is to move the lenticular media 14 at a constantlenticular pitch rate, thereby compensating for lenticular media pitchimperfections.

The invention has been described with reference to a preferredembodiment, however, it will be appreciated that variations andmodifications can be effected by a person of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope of the invention.

PARTS LIST 10 Image product production apparatus 12 Media platen 14Lenticular media 16 Pinch roller drive system 18 Drive motor 20 Encoder22 Writing laser beam 24 Modulated laser 26 Scanning polygon 28 Beamshaping mirror 30 Beam shaping mirror 32 Cold mirror 34 Cylindricalmirror 36 Infrared laser 38 Infrared laser bean 40 Mirror 44 Positionsensing detector 46 Control electronics 48 Position sensing detectoroutput signal 50 Zero crossing comparator 52 Signal output from zerocrossing comparator 54 Pitch detection electronics 56 Encoder pulses 58Lenticular pitch error 60 Power amplifier 62 Control signal 64 Nominalvelocity command signal 66 Pulse divider 68 Gate pulse signal 70 Gatedcounter 72 Difference circuit 74 Pitch difference signal 76 Gain or LUTblock 78 Nominal puck period in lenticule counts 80 Nominal pitch inencoder pulses 82 Reference clock pulses 84 Reference clock source 86Nominal pitch period in clock counts 88 Phase comparator 90 Referencephase clock 92 Phase error

What is claimed is:
 1. Apparatus for forming a lenticular image productfrom a sheet of lenticular material having one side forming an array ofcylindrical lenses having a pitch between lenses and a flat oppositeside and a photographic emulsion coated on the flat side, said emulsionhaving a range of wavelength sensitivity comprising: means for scanningthe flat side of the lenticular material with an intensity modulatedfirst beam of light in a direction parallel to the long axes of thecylindrical lenses to form a latent lenticular image in the photographicemulsion; means for focusing a second beam of light having a wavelengthoutside of the range of sensitivity of the photographic emulsion into aspot smaller than the pitch of the cylindrical lenses onto thelenticular material; means for moving the lenticular material in adirection perpendicular to the axes of the cylindrical lenses to providea page scan motion of the lenticular material and to modulate the angleof reflection or refraction of the second beam of light; and a positionsensor for sensing the position but not the intensity of the angularlymodulated second beam of light to control the motion of the lenticularmaterial; and further comprising: means for moving the lenticularmaterial by a known distance relative to the second beam of light; meansfor sensing the number of cycles that the angularly modulated secondbeam of light swings from one extreme to the other during the motion;means for computing the pitch by dividing the number of beam swings bythe known distance; and means for controlling the motion of thelenticular material as a function of the pitch.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1 further comprising: means for controlling the motion of thelenticular material such that a predetermined number of lenticularlenses pass through the second beam of light in a unit of time.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the position of the angularly modulatedsecond beam of light is sensed by a photosensor.
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the second beam of light is incident upon the flat sideof the lenticular material and wherein the means for sensing the secondbeam of light is located on the side having lenticular lenses. 5.Apparatus for forming a lenticular image product from a sheet oflenticular material having one side forming an array of cylindricallenses having a pitch between lenses and a flat opposite side and aphotoeraphic emulsion coated on the flat side, said emulsion having arange of wavelength sensitivity comprising: means for scanning the flatside of the lenticular material with an intensity modulated first beamof light in a direction parallel to the long axes of the cylindricallenses to form a latent lenticular image in the photographic emulsion;means for focusing a second beam of light having a wavelength outside ofthe range of sensitivity of the photographic emulsion into a spotsmaller than the pitch of the cylindrical lenses onto the lenticularmaterial; means for moving the lenticular material in a directionperpendicular to the axes of the cylindrical lenses to provide a pagescan motion of the lenticular material and to modulate the angle ofreflection or refraction of the second beam of light; and a positionsensor for sensing the position but not the intensity of the angularlymodulated second beam of light to control the motion of the lenticularmaterial; and further comprising: means for moving the lenticularmaterial until the angularly modulated second beam of light swingsthrough a predetermined number of cycles; means for measuring thedistance that the material moves during the predetermined number ofcycles; means for computing the pitch by dividing the predeterminednumber of beam swings by the measured distance; and means forcontrolling the motion of the lenticular material as a function of thepitch.
 6. Apparatus for forming a lenticular image product from a sheetof lenticular material having one side forming an array of cylindricallenses having a pitch between lenses and a flat opoosite side and aphotographic emulsion coated on the flat side, said emulsion having arange of wavelength sensitivity comprising: means for scanning the flatside of the lenticular material with an intensity modulated first beamof light in a direction parallel to the long axes of the cylindricallenses to form a latent lenticular image in the photographic emulsion;means for focusing a second beam of light having a waveleneth outside ofthe range of sensitivity of the photographic emulsion into a spotsmaller than the pitch of the cylindrical lenses onto the lenticularmaterial; means for moving the lenticular material in a directionperpendicular to the axes of the cylindrical lenses to provide a pagescan motion of the lenticular material and to modulate the angle ofreflection or refraction of the second beam of light; and a positionsensor for sensing the position but not the intensity of the angularlymodulated second beam of light to control the motion of the lenticularmaterial; and further comprising: means for moving the lenticularmaterial at a constant velocity until the angularly modulated secondbeam of light swings through a predetermined number of cycles; means formeasuring the time that the material moves during the predeterminednumber of cycles; means for computing the pitch by multiplying thepredetermined number of beam swings by the measured time and dividingthe product by the known velocity; and means for controlling the motionof the lenticular material as a function of the pitch.